NEWS: John G. Waite Architects and the Baltimore Basilica Restoration

Architect John G. Waite was on the committee that researched and created our Building Conservation program back in the late 1990s; Doug Bucher and Steve Reilly teach Preservation Design Studio and Recording Historic Structures. The firm's offices have hosted numerous of our Friday Night field trips.

From Albany Times Union

02/18/07
Religious conversion: Albany firm at the helm of the heralded Baltimore Basilica restoration

By Paul Grondahl

America's first cathedral, the Baltimore Basilica, reopened in November for a 200th anniversary celebration following a two-year, $32 million restoration. Perhaps nobody was more elated than the staff at the Albany architectural firm of John G. Waite Associates.

The weeklong festivities heralding the neoclassical masterpiece capped by a Mass that drew more than 200 American Catholic bishops on Nov. 12, 2006 offered an exclamation point for Waite and his crew on a project that represented one of the most challenging and rewarding assignments of their careers.

"It's the most important Catholic building in America and one of the world-class buildings in this country," Waite said. "We're proud of our work and think it turned out very well."

Press coverage, peer architectural reviews and preservation awards have praised the restoration.

"Baltimore's Basilica reborn ... an illuminating makeover," read the cover story in Preservation, the magazine of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Newsweek called it "a sacred mission."

The basilica restoration backstory for the Albany group involved a grueling eight-year process, beginning with a 700-page historic structure report begun in 1998, and tapped the expertise of a dozen members of the Waite firm as well as dozens of subcontractors and a few hundred workers.

On any given day, as many as 125 architects, engineers, carpenters, roofers, wood carvers, masons, glaziers and various artisans toiled inside and outside the vast structure.

Back story: Formally known as the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and begun in 1806, it was the first great metropolitan cathedral and first major religious building in America after the adoption of the Constitution.

It took 15 years of fits and starts and periodic droughts of cash to complete the cathedral. The construction paired two of the young republic's great visionaries: Benjamin Henry Latrobe, the nation's first professional architect, and Bishop John Carroll, the first Catholic bishop in America.

Latrobe, an Englishman who was not Catholic, worked on the U.S. Capitol in collaboration with Thomas Jefferson. Latrobe also was friendly with George Washington and Robert Fulton.

Carroll asked Latrobe to submit drawings for a design of a monumental building he wanted to stand as a stirring symbol of Catholicism in America.

Eight of Latrobe's conceptual drawings leaned heavily on the Gothic architecture favored in the great cathedrals of Europe. As an alternative, he offered a ninth drawing with a neoclassical design.

Carroll chose Latrobe's neoclassical concept, and that made all the difference.
Translating his vision into brick and mortar was a different matter for Latrobe. The architect had to ride herd on the workmen. Many were notorious as incompetent drunkards who tried to cut corners or misinterpreted blueprints until Latrobe caught the errors and redirected the crews.

He actually quit twice during the course of construction, but Carroll managed to coax the architect back on both occasions.

Into disrepair: The Baltimore basilica which features a striking columned entrance, vast dome with skylights and two towers topped with onion-shaped copper domes is a National Historic Landmark. It had fallen into disrepair in recent decades, but perhaps the most egregious affronts to Latrobe's timeless design were more than a dozen well-meaning attempts over different eras to add contemporary touches.

"Between the Civil War and the 1950s, there were more than a dozen remodelings, none of them successful," Waite said.

For the past eight years, hardly a month has gone by that Waite and Michael Curcio, who served as project manager, and Stephen Reilly, project architect, were not in Baltimore and immersed in the work.

Their overarching challenge was to restore the daylight that originally flooded the basilica. Douglas Bucher, interiors specialist, also spent untold days on the site.

For the past five decades, though, stained-glass windows replaced the original translucent glass, the dome's skylights were covered over and the walls were repainted many times in somber tones. The cumulative effect was a dark and dour interior that retained none of Latrobe's bright, shimmering airiness.

Bucher uncovered more than 20 layers of paint in some areas during his research, which included microscopic analysis of paint chips. He was able to make a precise match with Latrobe's original wall color, labeled "straw." It splashed the basilica's walls with a rich, buttery hue as natural light streamed through nine nave windows that flank the sanctuary after they were replaced with translucent glass.

Curcio's biggest challenge was creating a chapel and functional areas in the basement, known as an undercroft in ecclesiastical parlance. The basilica's basement is a series of vaulted brick spaces with tight headroom, which required a visitor to duck while walking through.

Curcio's solution? Lower the floor by as much as 18 inches. It sounded simple, but involved a complex manual excavation process, completed in small phases, so that the walls didn't collapse.

In the end, by lowering the floor, the basilica's basement now includes a 50-seat chapel, a fully restored crypt, bathrooms, gift shop and exhibit space. For the bulky heating and air-conditioning equipment, Waite's crew created an underground vault adjacent to the basilica.

Reilly's special assignment on the restoration was the 77-foot-wide central dome, which Latrobe designed using Jefferson's innovation from the Capitol a wooden cap with 24 skylights placed atop a thick masonry structural support.

"It was an ingenious construction method at a time when most of the country was just a few years beyond living in crude log cabins," said Waite, noting that Latrobe's skill in architecture was matched by a deep knowledge of engineering.

Paying the costs: The cost of the basilica restoration became a controversial topic in Baltimore, but naysayers were silenced by the deft shepherding of the project by the basilica's leader, Cardinal William Keeler. In the end, none of the $32 million came from public funds, but was raised from individual donations and private sources.

Keeler--whose family is related to the Keelers of Albany's former Keeler's Restaurant and Keeler Motor Car in Latham selected Waite's firm from 15 other architectural firms in Chicago, New York City, Washington and other big cities.

Waite's firm is nationally recognized as a leader in historic preservation, and its project list includes work on some of the country's most notable buildings: Mount Vernon, the Lincoln Memorial and Tweed Courthouse in New York City.

"The basilica project tops the list when it came to the number of diverse, substantial challenges we faced," Curcio said.

"This was the longest period of time I've worked on one project, and it was great to be able to see it through from start to finish," Reilly said.
Cardinal Keeler called the restoration "absolutely splendid, so bright and upbeat. It's even more more striking than I'd hoped for."

After 200 years of gradual decline and ill-conceived remodeling, Keeler said the basilica was finally "treated with the respect it deserved."

Paul Grondahl can be reached at 454-5623 or by e-mail at pgrondahl@timesunion.com.

Copyright, Times Union, 2007.